Panique à New Jersey

In an industry saturated with shark themed movies it takes a lot to impress me. What needs to be done is throwing a curve ball, taking the shark movie and adding an angle or something to set it apart from the rest. The Scyfy channel to their credit have done that what with the likes of the Sharknado movies, Toxic Shark, Snow Sharks etc but with little success.

12 Days of Terror however does it successfully, kind of. You see it's based upon a book/true story and set in 1916 so immediately its set apart from the rest. That however is the best thing about it.

Starring John Rhys-Davies as the only recognizable face 12 Days of Terror certainly looks the part and the period but alas is about as exciting as a National Geographic special on sloth racing.

Seriously, I was bored to tears. Sure it looks great, the cinematography is above par and it's handled competently but I couldn't get past how dull it all was. At no point was I gripped, did I care about the characters or really find myself invested in the film.

Points for effort, but little else.

The Good:

John Rhys-Davies

Fantastic setting

The Bad:

Frustratingly lifeless

It's all too easy to just nonchalantly label "12 Days of Terror" as being just another imitation of the legendary horror blockbuster "Jaws" and exclusively focus on its shortcomings. Especially when numerous and reliable sources state that Peter Benchley himself based his novel on these same facts that occurred in the summer of 1916. You can't really accuse a movie of being a rip-off when it's based on facts, not even when it comes more nearly 30 years after a milestone movie that commercialized these same facts. "12 Days of Terror" is an admirable and modest made-for-TV production that doesn't even dream of competing with "Jaws". Director Jack Sholder ("The Hidden", "Alone in the Dark") has more than enough experience to realize he plays in an entirely different league than Steven Spielberg and merely just attempted to shoot a solid and factual shark movie. As far as I'm concerned he succeeded. The movie's main trump is undeniably the reasonably accurate depiction of the 1916 setting. The events occurred nearly 100 years ago, so you already know beforehand that this movie won't primarily revolve on sexy young chicks in minuscule bikinis. We received quite a lot of bloodthirsty shark movies recently ("Spring Break Shark Attack", "Red Water", "Shark Attack 1 to 47", etc…) but there were actually just simple excuses to show hot chicks and hunky boys parading in the latest beach fashion. This film is different. Admittedly the characters are still rather one-dimensional, but at least they're not complete retards. During the first days of the unusually hot summer of 1916, the New Jersey beaches become overflowed with tourists that wish to forget all the daily issues, like that horrible war being fought in Europe. The warm currents also bring another and very unwelcome visitor to Matawan in the shape of a hungry and extremely aggressive shark. The authorities still refuse to close down the beaches even after two fatal accidents, but when the unstoppable animal even swims up the creeks in search for more victims, courageous life guard Alex plans to catch the shark himself. "12 Days of Terror" is a thoroughly unsurprising and unspectacular thriller, but it's never pretentious or boring. Due to budgetary restrictions there aren't many special effects, exhilarating attacks or enchanting underwater shots to admire. Actually, we only properly get to see the shark's fin and even that looks fake. The acting performances are okay and the early 20th century decors are convincing enough. It's, simply put, a harmless little TV time-waster.

Also read the book this is based on as when you compare to two of them you might end up coming across a spoiler but I am going to be careful with this. They didn't film this in the actual location where the book mentioned so two points off for that one but you have to wonder what Redd calls Shark Creek.

All in all this movie is very researched as the other reviewers pointed out as it's based on the book. (ISBN-13: 978-1585742974) and you can look this up for yourself. Those of you calling this homo erotic no it's not and this is an era film as you do have to look into that era a bit as this was during the events of World War One.

This book been around for many years and when I was hanging out in video stores I had managed to get some renting this based upon my own insight about the film as the 1916 Shark attacks also worked into the framework of Jersey Shore Shark Attack as the character mentioned the shark attacks.

I suggest you guys get the book of this then watch the movie and see what you conclusions you can draw from this. Though the director of Nightmare On Elm Street 2 was behind this so I am hoping he doesn't gay this up. I don't understand why they had a horror director doing though. Animal Planet hope you're reading this because I am hoping that the director read the book before he went into it because of what he did with A Nightmare On Elm Street 2. Okay I understand he wanted to do it because he was an educator and this doesn't fall too far from his educator roots. Why I am not giving a lot away with this because I read the book the movie was based on.

Don't accuse this being a Jaws Ripoff like what others said because I am guessing the conclusion the other had said; it's based off a nonfiction work.

I have been obsessed with great white sharks since I saw Jaws when I was a very small child. I have seen the movie 'Twelve Days of Terror' and read the book as well, and both are utterly fascinating. Like it was said in the book, this incident in 1916 was a 'once in a lifetime' deal. Nothing like this has ever been happened before (and if it did, it was NEVER documented) and probably will not ever happen again, at least not in our lifetimes. I whole heartedly believe that the culprit back in 1916 was a juvenile great white shark. There are scientists that believe it was a bull shark, or a group of sharks. The shark that is on the cover of 'Twelve Days of Terror' was later autopsied and 10 to 15 pounds of human flesh were found inside. There is no doubt that it was a real, true man-eater that attacked all of those people (I believe it was 6 people total, and only one survived.) A shark that preys on humans (which is not a natural food source for sharks of any species) truly, in my opinion is a freak of nature. Very fascinating.

I saw this movie and wishing it is on DVD. I have seen all the shark movies that are made except for Open Water and Shark Attack I. I want to see Open Water but this movie is one of those that is damned accurate to the book as well as well to the events of what happened. Dr. Fernicola, thank you for writing this book and providing the movie to go with it. It was about time to see this movie become made. The question of how they managed to make the shark for this one. It is one that rivals Red Water. I am very pleased with this movie; and I used to read a lot of books about shark attacks and had a morbid interest for what happens to people that were attacked by a shark. This movie adds more of a sting to JAWS in the book form. I am reading both books at the same time. This TV movie was one that I will remember for many years to come.